Immortal Love
by insanemonkeyboy
Summary: In an AU where Natsu is the one who survives the attack, Zeref, the fire dragon slayer of Fairy Tail, sees something unusual on Tenrou Island. Little does he know that what he just witnessed will unravel secrets long kept and draw Fairy Tail into a battle for their very existence. NatsuxMavis, ZerefxUndecided
1. Chapter 1

**I don't own Fairy Tail or the characters. They belong to Mashima

So this is just a little idea I had. I may or may not continue it depending on if anyone wants it to continue. The pairing here is NatsuxMavis, definite AU, where Natsu was the one who survived the attack and Zeref was resurrected as an Etherious...**

* * *

 **—x791—**

 **—Tenroujima Island—**

"Heh…" Zeref Dragneel dusted himself off as he headed back toward the meeting place. He'd just finished testing Gajeel Redfox and his chosen partner, Levy McGarden, in the annual S-class trials. The iron dragon slayer had done well, but in the end Zeref had decided to fail him. Without Levy's assistance, he'd never figure out the second part of the exam, and in Zeref's estimation there was a lot that the man was lacking despite his skill in battle.

But as he came out of the caves a faint sound reached his ears. The sound of a woman, or a young teenage girl. She was far enough away that he couldn't make out any words, but the voice was coming from off to the right.

But to his right was nothing but dense foliage and more rock. At least, that's what it appeared. But his dragon slayer senses didn't lie to him. The voice definitely came from that area. Leaning forward, he sniffed at the foliage and the rock beyond. There was definitely something else there. A passage, or a tunnel, and a clearing beyond.

He pushed through the thick foliage, not caring as branches slapped against his face and neck. After a few moments he broke through into a long, narrow tunnel. His head knocked against the ceiling of the tunnel, causing him to crouch a little to continue on.

Master Makarov's voice echoed in his mind. _There is a place on Tenroujima that is forbidden. Should you ever stumble across a hidden passage, turn back and do not continue down. This rule has been passed down through all masters before me._

Zeref knew he should heed the warning, but he was drawn to the voice beyond the passage. Childish, yet mature it sounded. Like a girl who was still in her early teens, yet lived a life longer and more full than many of the ancient wizards. The soft melodic tones did not yet form coherent words to him, but as he drew closer he could tell she was talking to someone.

The darkness of the tunnel gave way again to light ahead. Not wanting to be discovered, Zeref took each step with care. Every step was a potential hazard. Rocks that looked loose here. Pebbles waited to be displaced by a careless step and clatter across the hard stone. Even the ceiling threatened to betray his presence, looming low with the promise that a slight straightening of his body would result in a painful reminder of why he had to crouch.

After an eternity filled with careful steps, low, labored breathing, and legs growing slightly stiff from maintaining the semi-crouched position, Zeref emerged from the tunnel. Never had straightening to his full height felt so good! The narrow canyon he'd entered offered no low ceiling. Only streaming sunlight cascading over his body and warming his soul. Further down the canyon the voice was getting louder. Its tones stirred his core. So sweet, melodic, with a hint of sadness coloring it. Now a few words were forming themselves from the girl's voice.

"You should see Fairy Tail now, Natsu-kun… It's grown so much since I started it all those years before. Some of their newest generation of wizards is on the island right now, taking the S-class exams. And I've got great news for you, Natsu-kun! Even your brother joined Fairy Tail! He's a really strong wizard too. Igneel taught him well, and he's been S class for 3 years already."

Natsu? Why did that name sound familiar? It wasn't in the guild lore, that was certain, but perhaps in other books somewhere. Zeref tried to place the name as he came around another bend, still masking his magic presence to avoid detection. He came to a quick stop, backpedaling a couple steps and crouching behind a rocky outcrop as he took in the sight before him.

The canyon opened out into a wide, peaceful space, seeming separated from the rest of the world. A small spring bubbled up to his right, and in the middle was a girl who looked to be in her early teens. Her long, blonde hair cascaded down past her waist, stopping almost at her knees. From the side profile he could see her brilliant vermillion eyes, sparkling in the bright afternoon sun as droplets formed at their edges.

"I'm so close, Natsu-kun. I just know I am. Soon I'll be able to have you back, and everything will be alright again. You should see them, Natsu-kun. Everything you've created… I've spent all my time repurposing them to find a way for you to be with me…."

Zeref could also see who she was talking to. The body of a boy who also looked to be in his early teens lay on a large stone slab in front of her. He was clothed in simple black pants and a black vest, with red markings running across it. A shock of pink hair topped his head, and a faint yellow-green light surrounded the body, which had not moved during the entire time Zeref was watching.

But Zeref's mind was still racing from the conversation. This girl said she 'started' Fairy Tail. But according to everything he'd heard, the first master of Fairy Tail disappeared almost a hundred years ago. Furthermore, his mind finally placed the name "Natsu." That was the name of the infamous dark mage who was responsible for creating those 'atrocities' that became known as demons! What was he doing on Tenrou? And why was the first talking to him? And who was this 'brother' that he had in Fairy Tail?!

Wait… She said 'Igneel' taught him will. There was only one Fairy Tail wizard taught by Igneel! But no! That was impossible! He didn't care what the first said. There was no way that Zeref Dragneel was the brother of the most infamous dark mage in history!

"They call them 'demons' now, Natsu-kun…" the first master was saying quietly. "I know you wouldn't like it, but I had to change some of their restrictions so they could perform their mission better. Please don't be angry with me when you come back. It's all so we can be together again…"

Then, as Zeref watched, the tears began to increase in frequency as Fairy Tail's lost first master continued her one-sided conversation. "I've been so lonely all these years without you, Natsu-kun. So many times I wanted to give up… But the thought of being with you again keeps me going. You have no idea how lonely it's been…" Her tears were flowing freely now, sparkling like rain drops as they descended on the pink-haired boy and the ground.

Zeref stayed absolutely still, unable to believe his eyes. The first master of Fairy Tail talking to the infamous dark mage like a former lover? Calling Zeref his brother? According to legends, Natsu had lived as much as 400 years ago, possibly even earlier. No way could he be related to that dark mage! He'd been found as a child by Igneel only 14 years ago!

"Natsu…" But the name sounded somehow familiar. Safe, even. Like a friend he'd long since forgotten. Yet at the same time there was a desire. A compulsion, even. A certainty that Natsu must die. Yes. That sounded right. Natsu, the darkest mage ever to live, was the one mage that Zeref could end and feel no guilt. It just felt right. There was no other way to explain it.

"It's time for me to say goodbye again Natsu-kun," Zeref suddenly realized the first master was done crying and was speaking gently to the boy suspended in front of her. "If all goes well, the next time I see you it will be to bring you back to me. Until that day, remember me, my Natsu-kun…" The girl leaned down and planted a gentle kiss on the boy's lips before pulling back again. Then, without another word, she vanished from the canyon.

Zeref stood there, looking at the space where the girl just was. Should he go forward to investigate further? If this was Natsu, the legendary black wizard, what was he doing on the guild's sacred ground? And why was the guild's first master, who disappeared a hundred years ago, speaking so fondly to his body?

Then another thought crossed his mind. Did master Makarov know about this? He'd warned the guild of the forbidden ground on the island. Was he aware of what was happening there? Or was he just following the rules of the guild without knowing why it was forbidden?

The form of the pink haired man, now identified as Natsu, called to him tantalizingly. A mystery needing to be investigated. He moved forward into the clearing slowly, glancing furtively around to make sure the girl wasn't about to return.

Suddenly his progress was stopped, and the air around him tingled and glowed. Curious, he pushed a hand forward. An invisible force pushed back against his hand, causing the air around them to pules and glow, like ripples on the surface of the water. A shield lay between him and the pink haired man, and a powerful one at that. If the shield was the first master's doing, he had no chance of breaking through.

Just then a yellow flare shot up from the meeting area. Yellow… Meant they were waiting for one of the s-class mages who was helping with the trials. Who would they be waiting for?

"Oh shit!" Zeref said aloud as he realized the flare must be meant for him. The other S-class wizards who had helped out must be at the meeting place already. Quickly he sprinted from the place, the strange opening and the pink-haired man all but forgotten.

Several minutes later he arrived at the agreed upon place, a flat, open area spread out between the caves from which they emerged for the test and the central area of the island beyond.

It appeared that this year's contenders for S-class were Gray, Cana, and Elfman, though the latter would not reveal how he and his partner, Evergreen, managed to get past demon Mirajane. That meant that besides Gajeel, Mest and Juvia were knocked out.

"What kept you so long Zeref?" Makarov's voice cut into his thoughts.

"Oh. I found something odd, and decided to investigate." Zeref said before he thought about it. Well, there he went again, saying something he meant to keep to himself for a while in case it got him into trouble. It almost cost him the S-class trials last year. Almost.

"What did you find?" Makarov looked at him intently.

Zeref sighed, knowing that now there would be no getting out of telling the master what happened. "I found a hidden passage on the way out from the caves. I went down, and there was a girl there with long, blonde hair and bright green eyes… She looked like a young girl, but then she was talking about creating Fairy Tail."

"You saw Mavis?!" Makarov said, his eyes turning to saucers.

"Yeah, and she was talking to this guy in pink hair. I think he was dead or asleep or something, because he never moved the whole time. She called him 'Natsu.' And she was talking to him like they were lovers or something," he said the last part with a frown. The first master of Fairy Tail and the most evil wizard in history lovers? It just didn't make sense.

"Natsu?" Makarov's brow furrowed. "But why would she have him here on the island?"

"I don't know," Zeref shrugged. "I didn't even know who he was till just recently."

Makarov stayed silent for several minutes, staring out into space thoughtfully. Zeref waited impatiently to hear what the old man was thinking.

Finally he could bear the waiting no more. "Master, did you know first master Mavis was still alive, and keeping Natsu here on Tenrojima?"

"What? Of course not," Makarov said. "The place that you entered was declared forbidden ground by the first master, and all of us have respected her order since then. You are the first one other than her to see it."

"Then why do you think she would do that? Why would she be talking to the most evil wizard in history like they were lovers or something?"

Makarov sighed. "Natsu is a lot more complicated than that," he said with a frown. "He's the most feared mage in history, certainly, but whether or not he was actually an evil mage… Well, that's been debated."

"But what about all those demons from his books? Didn't he create those?"

Makarov nodded. "He did, but that's all part of the mystery. For all their power, the demons he created never did anything to harm humans. For over 300 years they existed as our friends, even helping Fiore in various wars in the past."

"But almost 100 years ago Natsu vanished. All reports of his presence stopped coming in. About 15 years after that was when the demons began to turn vicious. They no longer accepted us as their equals and partners, but closed themselves off in their own secret pursuits. Some even engaged in killing humans for sport."

Zeref looked up, surprised. "But if all this is known…"

"The council is doing their best to suppress this," Makarov looked away, off toward the mountains in the distance. "They can't admit to the people that they don't know what's going on, so over the last 70 years they've recreated the story so that the demons were always the enemies of humans, and Natsu himself also."

Zeref thought about all this information, which came as quite a shock to him. There was a chance that the black mage wasn't the evil person he was made out to be? And demons used to be friends with the humans? How much more was there that they were never told? How many people had died in places like the tower of heaven pursuing something that wasn't even real? And had Natsu been here on Tenroujima, safely hidden by the first master, for nearly 100 years?

Then another thought struck him. "Didn't first master disappear nearly 100 years ago?"

"Very perceptive, as always Zeref," Makarov said approvingly. "There were many who wondered if it was a mere coincidence that she disappeared shortly after the black wizard. But she announced her departure. She left the guild in master Purehito's hands, gave us the instructions about Tenroujima, and then we never heard from her again."

Then the guild master turned. "But I must oversee the rest of these trials. We may need to talk more of this later."

With that he was gone, leaving Zeref with a lot of new information to think about.

* * *

So there it is. As I said, I may or may not continue it depending on the interest.


	2. Chapter 2

**I don't own Fairy Tail, Mashima does. All that good stuff.

Thanks to all those who read, reviewed, liked, and favorited this story!

Next update will be to "To Be Cherished." I've decided this story will be fairly short. I originally planned to make it a 20+ chapter story, and then I realized I have a ton of stories I'm working on already and I still haven't posted my NatsuxIrene story (which is one of the favorites that I'm writing so far - if anyone's curious about the basic plot you can see the story on the poll that's closed but still visible on my profile). So this will probably end up being no more than 10 chapters instead.

After "To Be Cherished" I plan to update "Chinks in Their Armor," which is well overdue for an update. And... eventually I'll get back to "Exploring the World with You" as well as writing a sequel to "24 hours" (If you don't like horror, don't read 24 hours, but the sequel is safe... mostly).

Anyway, sorry about all the notes. On to the story! **

* * *

After deciding to stick around for the remainder of this year's S-class trials, Zeref headed back to the base area where he joined Mirajane, Lisanna, and Juvia. He frowned when he noticed that Wendy, the young dragon slayer who recently joined, and Mest were both absent from the base camp. His understanding was that they'd ended up losing to Gray and Loke in the tunnels. As much as he believed that Gray and Loke were strong mages – well, technically Loke was a celestial spirit – the fact that Mest had lost to them even with the sky maiden to support him showed that he wasn't yet worthy of the title of S-class.

Zeref glanced over again to catch Mira eyeing him again. He smiled and waved to the white-haired take over mage, who blushed slightly and turned away. He couldn't deny that she was beautiful. As a model, she was one of the most desired women in all Fiore for a reason. And as a mage her strength was among the top 5 in the guild, certainly.

The other S class mages, Laxus, Ultear, Gildarts, and even Erza, had already departed, on a ship back to the guild. Ultear and Erza… The names reminded him of one of the reasons that many in the guild hated the black wizard. Erza, along with many others, had once been imprisoned at a "research" facility. Ultear was taken to the same facility when a man promised her mother that they could help cure the illness caused by her magic. If Zeref remembered right, Ultear said that her mother, who also happened to be Gray's teacher, discovered that the facility was tied to a dark guild. She decided to rescue her daughter from the facility, but in doing so gave her life fighting a member of the dark guild who oversaw the research. Ultear and Erza both recalled how the man had transformed into a terrifying demon, who they later discovered was a demon created by none other than Natsu, the black wizard.

In the aftermath of that event, the council had investigated the research facility. Zeref had researched the incident using everything from magazines and news from that time to books that were written by people connected to the members who conducted the examination. Most of the children that were imprisoned there were never found. Only Erza, Ultear, Simon, Millianna, Sorano, Erik, and a couple of others made it out safely. Of those, Erza, Ultear, Simon, Millianna, and Erik all joined Fairy Tail. Sorano, according to Erza, who was the only one he had finally gotten to open up to him about the incident, had gone off in search of her little sister Yukino. The other children she either didn't know or didn't know what became of them, except Macbeth, who she said went to find a guild more suited to his taste than Fairy Tail. Needless to say, Erza and the others who were imprisoned felt a deep hatred for the black wizard who was responsible for creating the creatures that imprisoned them and treated them like animals to be experimented on. That was why he was familiar with the name Natsu.

But Makarov's words troubled him. If what the master of Fairy Tail said was accurate, the creatures now known as the demons of Natsu were said to be only allies to humans in previous years. In fact, it wasn't until well after the black mage's disappearance and presumed death that they had become aggressive toward humans and labeled "demons."

Was it possible that some dark mage, taking advantage of the black mage's absence, had figured out the secrets to his creations and also figured out how to bend them to an evil cause? Beyond that, how did first master Mavis fit in? It was clear now that she had a close relationship with Natsu. And, the more Zeref thought about it, the more certain he was that she was trying to revive the black mage. Why would Fairy Tail's first master be involved in something like that?

"A yellow flare!" Mira's voice startled him out of his contemplation, and he looked to the sky. Sure enough, a yellow flare had come up on the beach, not far from their current location.

"Yellow… means something coming in…" Zeref pondered. They were currently separated from the beach by a large outcropping of rock, but it would take less than 10 minutes to get there if they hurried.

"Come on slowpoke!" Mira smirked, sticking her tongue out at him as she was already well out of the base camp. He took off after her at a sprint. When it came down to it, Mira was probably the fastest member of Fairy Tail in addition to being one of the strongest.

As soon as he came around the outcropping he could see the reason for the flare. A large airship was coming in, and coming in fast. Not only that, its approach was low, on a collision course with the beach.

Makarov came around, or rather over, the mountains at the same moment, his giant foot crashing down on the beach before he shrunk back to normal size. He stood there, staring at the approaching airship as Zeref and Mira ran up to the beach. Gajeel, apparently the one who had fired the flare, was already there.

Makarov looked out, then grew to his titan size, a grim expression on his face. As the gathering members of Fairy Tail arrived, each stopping to watch the spectacle before them, he caught the ship in his hands just before it crashed, slowing its descent to the ground.

Once the airship landed, Makarov returned to his normal, short size. "Zeref, Mirajane. Come with me." He said, and started up to the deck.

On the deck, they opened the door to the pilot house and went inside. There, in a large chair, an old, bearded man was slumped over, his gray hair falling over his face and hiding much of it from view. His clothing was in tatters, and bruises and lacerations were visible all over his body where the torn clothing didn't cover.

"Master Purehito!" Makarov said, his voice sounding alarmed as he rushed forward. Zeref followed close behind, with Mira right beside him. As they approached, the old man lifted his head with a groan.

"What happened to you?" Makarov asked as he reached the old man.

"Tartaros…" The word escaped his lips in a hiss of pain, and his head slumped forward, his consciousness slipping away again.

"Zeref, go find Wendy and bring her here at once." Makarov spoke with a grim tone as he turned to the dragon slayer. Zeref nodded, turning without question and heading back to the beach where the other members of Fairy Tail were gathering.

It wasn't long before he saw her. The young, blue haired girl raced toward the beach. Her partner, Mest, was already there, but that was to be expected with his teleportation powers. Zeref ignored the questioning look that Mest shot him and waved to the girl running toward him.

"Wendy! The master needs you inside right now! It's urgent!"

"C-Coming!" The girl called. Zeref almost laughed as he watched her trip, slamming face first into the sand. Despite her occasional clumsiness, Wendy was as good a team member and reliable a wizard as any others in Fairy Tail, and stronger than anyone else her age for sure. Yet she was still timid, though the white exceed that usually accompanied her made up for it with her sharp and fearless tongue.

The exceeds… Zeref missed Happy right now, but when the exceeds discovered that all their respective dragon slayer partners would be participating in the exams without them they had decided to take a little "exceed holiday" visiting some of their kin that returned with them from Edolas. Happy was, perhaps, the most reluctant to go. But he was convinced by Carla, who promised to eat fish with him if he accompanied them. Carla was the most insistent on leaving, saying that she had no intention of sitting around some stuffy island waiting for Wendy to finish these ridiculous exams, especially since she wasn't even up for promotion.

Now, running back up to the ship, Zeref wished their partners were there. Even though all of them had their foibles, they always managed to add a certain amount of levity to any situation. And things were now starting to look bleak.

Little was known about the guild Tartaros. Officially, nothing was known about them. Their activities, members, and location were all a mystery. Rumors from the human experimentation facilities whispered that the guild was populated with demons, but these rumors were dismissed by the council as nonsensical.

And yet here was Master Purehito, Makarov's predecessor and a very powerful wizard by any account, badly beaten, with only the guild name to utter in explanation. And this just after Mavis was on the guild's sacred island attending what appeared to be the body of none other than Natsu, the fearsome black wizard.

Who, again, was perhaps not so dark and fearsome as current legends made him out to be. Damn this was confusing. All this time studying the history of magic and of the guild only to discover that half of it could be a lie? A twisting of the truth by a corrupt council to placate the fears of the people of Fiore?

It was frustrating to say the least, but at the same time exciting. Perhaps this would be a chance to find out the truth about magic. The truth about himself. Who he was. Who his parents were. Who his brother was. Yeah. If Natsu was really his brother, he couldn't be all bad right?

But then why did he feel so strongly that Natsu should be dead? It seemed to be one of his deepest rooted desires to see the dark mage fall. When he first discovered this feeling – this nagging desire deep in his heart to kill the dark mage Natsu, he thought perhaps he was the reason that Zeref was orphaned in the first place. That Natsu killed his parents and left him for dead, after which he was miraculously saved by Igneel. But if he was his brother that seemed much less likely, and even less so if, as Makarov said, he wasn't the black mage that everyone thought he was.

He let out a frustrated grunt as he headed back into the airship, where Wendy was just finishing the healing process. The girl seemed exhausted as she drew back from the older mage, whose face now seemed more peaceful, though his eyes remained closed.

"Bring him to the base camp," Makarov instructed the mages who were present. "And summon any S class who departed already back to the island. I have a feeling we're going to need everyone."

Zeref nodded and watched as Elfman picked up the former guild master, placing him on his back in a fireman-style carry. He stayed a bit behind as they headed back to the base camp, waiting for Makarov. The guild master had remained on board the ship for a while after the rest of them left, possibly looking for something that would help in the search. When he finally did come out, he looked even more troubled than before.

"What's wrong, master?" Zeref asked quietly as he approached.

"I don't know," Makarov replied, shaking his head. "I can't make sense of anything, so I won't speak of what I don't know."

"What did you find in there?" There must have been something on that ship to make him feel the situation was even more dire.

"We'll know better when we talk to master Purehito," Makarov replied, looking at the ground. "Until then I won't say anymore."

"But master…"

"No. Whatever he found, he will know the meaning of it better than I. But if the notes he left behind are any indication, Fairy Tail will be facing dark days very soon."

Zeref turned, looking back to the ship and wondering if anyone would notice his absence. It would be easy to quick sneak a peek at what the old man found on the ship. And it wouldn't take more than a few minutes. He'd be back in no time.

"I put his notes in a safe place," Makarov's voice cut in. "So if you're thinking of trying to find them, don't bother."

Zeref sighed. Of course the old man would think of that. He was infurating that way sometimes. Not that his insight didn't have its advantages. For example, when Gray decided to sneak an S-class job after Zeref's promotion a couple years back, Makarov predicted he would do it. He'd even gone as far as to monitor all incoming job requests to see which one Gray might try and swipe. And he accurately predicted the one the ice mage picked. Zeref still remembered the look on the stripper's face when he ran into him, Erza, and Mirajane all waiting for him at the train station. It was hilarious! Whenever he needed a good laugh he could think back to how quickly the excitement Gray's face turned to horror when he saw them, the color draining and his body seeming to go limp. Erza only allowed them to deal 'moderate' punishment, though, saying that the worst punishment would be dealt later by the master himself.

Zeref didn't even realize that he was grinning till he felt the smile fading away from his face at the base camp. The mood of the entire group changed in an instant. Only moments ago they were excited, cheerful, and ready to conquer the s-class trials. Now they seemed fearful. Some almost depressed.

"Pathetic." Zeref turned to see Mirajane looking around, her habitual sneer back on her face. Well, they didn't call her the demon of Fairy Tail for nothing, after all. Her eyes swung over the guild, stopping on each member in turn. A small smirk played about his lips as they lingered on him for a moment longer. "Is this Fairy Tail? You've all given up, and we don't even know what we're facing yet! This is exactly why nobody deserves S class this year. You're all pathetic."

"Mira," Makarov said sternly.

The white-haired girl turned to him. "What? It's true. All the mages here except you, me, and Zeref are A class, soon to be in contention for S class. And look at them. They look like a bunch of whipped puppies just because a former master showed up a little beaten up."

Makarov took a deep breath, looking over the guild before him. "You can inspire courage without calling them all cowards," he said quietly. "They are right to be afraid. Master Purehito was a very powerful mage in his own right. For him to take a beating this severe is troubling."

He then raised his voice to turn to the rest of the guild. "But we are Fairy Tail! If the enemy divides us, we may fall. But together we are more powerful than any opponent!"

Zeref watched the faces of the group. Some of them brightened at the master's encouragement. Many remained the same, fearful or discouraged, despite the master's words. In a few he could see anger. Anger that one of their own had been injured in such a way, and determination to defeat the ones who did this to him.

Just then Purehito coughed, his eyelids fluttering open. For a moment his face reflected fear. Then it quickly changed to relief. Finally he spoke, his voice low and serious.

"Makarov, we have much to discuss in private."

Makarov nodded. "Zeref. Mirajane. You two stay here. The rest of you get back to the entrance of the caves till I call for you."

"Why do Zeref and Mira get to stay?" Gray's voice shouted from the group, and many others echoed the sentiment.

"One, because they are S-class, and will be the first to be sent if there is a need for fighting. Second, because I know that no matter what our former guild master has to tell us, it won't intimidate or discourage them. Three, because I said so. Now, if I didn't tell you to stay here, you have 10 seconds to get out of here or face a punishment."

There was still quite a bit of grumbling, but by the time Makarov finished counting down from 10 the base camp was empty, save the two guild masters, Zeref, and Mirajane. Zeref then turned his attention to Purehito, waiting to see what the explanation would be.

* * *

And there you have it. Chapter 2. Read. Review. Like. Review. Favorite. Review.

hehehehehehehehehe


	3. Chapter 3

**I don't own Fairy Tail or the characters. Mashima owns that. And as of right now I'm still perusing the manga, though I like to pretend most of the stuff since the GMG just didn't happen... There have been some cool moments, but overall, it really took a plunge, even before the GMG really. It was already starting to go downhill in the Tenro arc.

Anyway... Enough author disillusionment ranting. Less of that. More story.

Monkey tired of manga. Monkey go make omake now. You read. You like. You review.

* * *

Zeref stood close to Makarov, staring at Purehito as the older man drew in a long breath. He was vaguely aware of Mira on his other side as the former guild master began to speak.

"Makarov, how much do the others know about this?"

"Nothing at this moment," Makarov said with a sigh.

Purehito nodded, closing his eyes and taking another deep breath before opening them again. This time he addressed himself to Zeref and Mirajane.

"I was the 2nd guild master of Fairy Tail, appointed after Mavis disappeared nearly 100 years ago. For nearly 80 years I held that responsibility, but during that time rumors started reaching my ears. Rumors that were disturbing, and too dangerous to be ignored…"

"By now you've all heard of Natsu. At the time that these rumors were spreading, Natsu had been labeled a "dark mage" by the council. But that wasn't always the case. Prior to the council's efforts to rewrite history, Natsu was known as a mysterious figure. Many feared him because of his power, but he never showed any ill intention toward humans. In fact, all of the etherious – the beings that he created, their lives and powers written into books – were unable to do violence against humans by Natsu's design. They even aided humans against terrible monsters that arose over the years, and once beat back even the black dragon when he sought to destroy Fiore's capital. Yet, because his intentions and his workings were often shrouded in mystery, many still feared him. This is how it was when we met him shortly before the guild was formed."

"How we came to meet him, and to be traveling together at all, is a long story that I can tell you at a different time. But shortly after Makarov's birth, Mavis left the guild, distancing herself from us. I believe that she blamed herself for the death of Yury's wife, Makarov's mother. Shortly after that, Natsu mysteriously disappeared from earthland. Even the few people that he still maintained contact with no longer knew anything of him. Around the same time, Mavis returned to the guild, only to appoint me as the second guild master and leave once more."

"About 20-30 years after that time, rumors began to appear of changes in the world. The etherious, known previously to be unable to harm humans, were, by some accounts, beginning to capture, possibly torture, and even kill humans. As time went on, the rumors grew in frequency and became more specific, to the point where I could no longer ignore them. The etherious, now called "demons" by many, were too powerful to ignore if they were a threat to humanity. So, 20 years ago, I went off to investigate these rumors, appointing Makarov as the third master of Fairy Tail and instructing him not to come look for me."

Purehito stopped for a moment, pulling himself together before continuing, looking more toward Makarov now. "I trailed clues about the etherious for a year, but could never find them. It seemed as though their base were too well hidden even for my magic to find. But I did find some disturbing things. Research facilities where humans were treated like lab animals. Many of the people I rescued were too incoherent to talk. The experiments they endured destroyed their minds and their wills. Those that could talk would only speak of the demons…"

"Finally, after tracking them for just over a year, I devised a trap for my opponents. By securing a faster transport from town, I arrived at a facility almost an entire day before I should reasonably be able to make it there. I caught one of the lower ranking etherious as he tried to escape the facility, having been warned of my arrival. After seeing what was done to these humans, I had no sympathy for the creature. After several hours, he finally revealed to me the location of their base."

He then scowled and looked down. "But it turned out to be a trap. The etherious were waiting for me when I arrived, and I was overcome by their combined power. Since that time, I've been imprisoned in their private research facility, in their very lair. Tartaros."

He was silent then, for a long time. His eyes receding into themselves as though he were in a place far away. Pain flickered across his face. Zeref wanted to ask him to continue, but he didn't dare. He could see that Mira was also edgy, but she restrained herself in the presence of the current and former masters.

Finally he spoke again. "Then, almost a full day ago now, an airship came to Tartaros. A powerful guild discovered its location after one of their mages were taken. When they were cornered by the etherious, they released all the prisoners, including me, in an attempt to distract them. But it wasn't enough. In the end, I escaped with two of the members on the airship. But just as we were leaving, one of the etherious pulled one of the members off the airship. The last remaining guild member decided to attempt to rescue him from their clutches. I tried to reason with him, telling him that we could come back with a greater force, but in the end he was determined to go back."

Purehito looked down again, regret in his eyes. "If I had not been imprisoned so long, things may have been different. But I was weak. Drained from years of their 'research' techniques. I knew the best chance that I had of getting my rescuers back out of there was to come to Fairy Tail, but when I reached the guild there they could only tell me that the current master was at Tenroujima for the S Class trials. So I came out here as fast as I could."

"Then there is no time to lose," Makarov said grimly. "Zeref and Mirajane, get the rest of the guild ready to mobilize. We'll leave for Tartaros immediately!"

Zeref nodded, turning toward the path that led to the secondary base the rest of the members retreated to. But stopped when he heard Purehito's voice again. "Wait. There's more that you need to know."

"What is it?"

"The etherious are trying to revive Natsu," he said. "I don't know what their purpose is, but over the last couple weeks they've been talking about how they think they know his location. It seems that he's alive, though from what I could follow of the conversation it sounds like he's in some kind of coma. They would talk about things like this constantly during the "research." And not only that, it seems that first master Mavis is somehow involved."

"Mavis involved in that?" Zeref turned toward Makarov as the old man spoke up. "From what I know of the first master, I can't believe she would be involved in such a thing."

"And you think I would willingly believe it?" Purehito's voice became firmer as he looked Makarov dead in the eyes. "I knew Mavis. She was a wonderful girl, and I couldn't believe she would be involved in such a thing either. But she is. However, that's beside the point. We need to find Natsu's body before the demons can acquire it."

"I may know where it is," Zeref was surprised to hear his own voice. It hadn't been his intention to reveal this vital bit of information without prior consent from Makarov, but somehow it just slipped out.

"What do you know?" Purehito's sharp eyes turned to him, and he quickly realized that despite the man's weakened state, he could be a force to be reckoned with even now if he were an enemy.

"I… I accidentally stumbled upon it, and first master," Zeref said quietly after receiving a nod from Makarov. "I heard a girl's voice coming from beyond some shrubs that grew close against the rock face coming out of the caves, and found there was a secret path there. When I followed it, I saw first master Mavis. She was standing next to somebody who didn't move the entire time I was there. The thing I noticed most about him was the unusual color of his hair. It was pink. After she left, I tried to approach to investigate further, but there was some kind of a barrier around the body that wouldn't let me through."

"Pink hair… There is little doubt that was Natsu then," Purehito said slowly. "So she had him on this island all along." He then turned to Makarov. "I can dispel the barrier. Whatever we do, we must ensure that Natsu's body doesn't fall into Tartaros' hands."

Just then Gildarts, Erza, Ultear, and the other S-Class mages came running in. "Your message caught us before our ship reached the mainland," Gildarts said.

"Good, you're here." Makarov said. "The S-class trials for this year have been suspended. I'll brief you on the way, but now we must go recover a body. Then we're going to war."

 **~~~~~~A few minutes later, in the clearing~~~~~~**

Makarov looked at the body before them, no longer contained inside the barrier. Zeref stood next to him, his gaze moving from the old guild master to the young-looking body in front of them. Finally Makarov spoke what Zeref was only thinking.

"It's hard to believe that this is the most feared mage in all earthland. He looks like he could still be in his teens."

"Yeah, and what's with the pink hair? La-ame!" Gray's voice echoed from behind them.

"Gildarts and Erza, I want you two to take the body to the guild. That will be the safest place, I think. With the two of you guarding his body, there is little chance anything will happen to it."

"The rest of you, come with me. We're going to Tartaros, and we're going to get to the bottom of whatever's going on here. We're going to need every one of us if we're going to hope to overcome the demons from Natsu's books."

Zeref smirked, raising his hand with the Fairy Tail symbol as everyone around them did. Tartaros was gonna' regret messing with Fairy Tail. He would personally make sure of it.

 **~~~~~~Unknown Location~~~~~~**

"Lady Mavis, you're earlier than expected."

"Mard Geer. How is the research coming?" Mavis didn't bother with formalities. She felt that they were close to reviving Natsu, and that was what really mattered.

"Come with me and I'll show you, milady."

Mavis nodded, following Mard Geer as he led her further down into the cube they called a guild. Then paused as they turned toward the passage leading to the right.

"I've been here enough times to know this isn't the way to the research facility, Mard Geer," she said. "Where are we going?"

"There's something you have to see," Mard Geer replied calmly, continuing forward without her. "We will get to the research facility soon."

After another moment's hesitation she caught up to him, heading down the hallway in the direction he was taking her. She hadn't really seen much of the guild before, so everything except the areas around the research rooms was completely new to her. She frowned as they passed what looked like dungeon cells, all with anti-magic restraining equipment inside.

Finally they came to a door, and Mavis stepped through after Mard Geer. Even as the door closed behind her, her mouth dropped open at what she saw.

The room she now found herself in was enormous. Bigger even than the Fairy Tail guild hall. And it was lined with cages. Most cages had people in them! Mages who were bruised. Beaten. Scarred. A man in a cage near her looked out with empty eyes, seeming completely unaware of any presence in the room. Others, looking less worn out, rattled their cages, still hoping for a way of escape.

"What is the meaning of this?!" She rounded on Mard Geer.

"Welcome to the _real_ research facility, lady Mavis," he said, a faint mocking in his tone.

"But this is impossible!" She declared, unable to comprehend it. "Natsu made you so that you can't hurt or kill humans! You can't be doing this!"

"It's true that Lord Natsu created us to help humans," said Mard Geer, still smirking. "But in recent years we've learned the pleasure of causing the weak human race pain. We owe all of that to you, Mavis."

"W-what do you mean?" Mavis was doing her best to remain confident, but she could sense Kyouka, Sayla, and Franmalth behind her. Despite her rational brain telling her that none of this was possible, the reality in front of her was quite different. She was confused, and that was something the Fairy Tactician was utterly unfamiliar with. "All I did was change a little bit of Natsu's work so that you would try to revive him instead of killing him…"

"And when you did that, you showed us that we could go against Lord Natsu's intent when he created us," Mard Geer said, a small smirk on his face. "One might say that you enabled us to 'test' our abilities to disobey our master and see how far we could go. So thanks to you, we learned how much fun it is to take in humans. To hear them scream as we experiment on their bodies. To hear them beg for their pathetic lives before we kill them."

Mavis' eyes popped wide open. She'd miscalculated. Somehow, by adding just a couple small things to the books Natsu created these etherious from, she'd allowed them to break all the rules he set for them in the books. But because of her confidence in her abilities and her desire to resurrect Natsu, she'd been totally blind to their work. This despite all the rumors that had been floating around for a long time.

Steeling herself, she glared at the 'underworld king.' "You won't find me so easy to kill," she threatened, seeing Kyouka come into her field of vision from the right and Franmalth from the left.

"Kill?" Mard Geer chuckled. "Oh no, Lady. You're much to valuable to kill…"

Mavis started to summon her magic, only to suddenly feel the magic sucked right out of her. She gasped as he body flooded with weakness, unable to resist as Kyouka moved forward and clicked handcuffs on her.

Then, as quickly as it had come, the feeling left, but with the handcuffs in place she would no longer be able to use her magic. She turned back to Mard Geer, ice in her gaze as she stared at him.

"You're probably wondering what that was," Mard Geer said, seeming unfazed. "I don't mind satisfying your curiosity. After all, it is thanks to you that we came to learn all we were truly capable of… What you just experienced was invented by our dear Lamy. It's a micro adaptation of a council magic that was created to deter invasion. You may be familiar with the weapon. It's commonly known as Face."

Mavis gasped. The council weapon that was said to be able to wipe out all magic on the continent in one shot? How did Tartaros manage to replicate that?

"The how is not important," Mard Geer said, seeming to read her mind. "What's important is that we have plenty of these prepared. And we will bring Lord Natsu back and resurrect him."

A small smile played about his lips as he turned back toward Mavis. "And then the two of you can be together forever… eternal prisoners of the world's new gods."

"What kind of fantasy is this?" Mavis spat. "You think you can gain power by holding us here?"

"We don't just think it. We know it." Mard Geer turned back toward the 'research' facility. "You see, our research to revive Lord Natsu was completed long ago. Over the last 20 years, we've been testing other things. We discovered a method in which people with large magic containers could be used to provide power boosts for other wizards. We also discovered, after many people died, of course, that there was an optimal level that could exponentially increase a wizard's power while barely keeping the source wizard alive… There are many who would pay handsomely to get their hands on that research, don't you think?"

Ignoring the question, Mavis posed one of her own. "What does this have to do with you, and Natsu? You think our magic power will give you more strength?"

"Oh no," Mard Geer said with a laugh. "You and Natsu are unique in such a way that only you can provide us with the power you seek."

"You see, our power doesn't come from magic. Our power comes from curses. So what do you think would happen if we combine our current, already considerable power, with our research, using as subjects the two mages bearing the most powerful curses in the universe? I don't think I need to tell the Fairy Tactician where this is going."

Mavis' eyes widened at the implications. If what he was saying was true, then with her and Natsu trapped the demons' power could be limitless! She had to find a way to stop this!

But wait. Their plan was still incomplete. "How do you expect to accomplish your goal? You don't even know where Natsu is…"

Once again a small smirk came to Mard Geer's face as he turned, and Kyouka and Franmalth both laughed out loud. "No," Mard Geer says. "But I know where he'll be soon enough. Fairy Tail."

"What?" Mavis' eyes shot open. "Why would he be there? Nobody in Fairy Tail even knows where he is!"

"They'll figure it out," Mard Geer said, still smirking. "And I made sure they had a reason to. A certain prisoner was allowed to escape yesterday, and by now he's found them and told them all about the dire situation here…"

Then he turned back to her, his face suddenly losing the smirk and taking on an annoyed expression. "But I grow tired of talking. Take her away!"

Mavis Vermillion was unable to do anything as she was dragged down the staircase into the room full of cages. The room that reeked of blood, tears, and terror.

* * *

There you have it. Drop a review if you like.

Monkey also take bananas.


	4. Chapter 4

****DISCLAIMER** I don't own Fairy Tail or the characters. They all belong to Mashima **DISCLAIMER****

 **Ok, so my goal here is to try to finish a few of my shorter stories to get them off my plate... I have so many stories going I feel like it's ages between updates, and all the while I'm constantly resisting the urge to start new stories I swear, ideas are like those little cartoon devils that sit on a character's shoulder. Every time I sit down and write there's a new one on my shoulder whispering 'hey, here's a great idea for a new story...'**

 **Anyway, the hope is that I'll be able to stick with this story long enough to finish it (only a few chapters left, I think), and then move on to another of the shorter stories. This will, of course, have the negative impact of putting some of my longer and more popular stories on the backburner, but on the bright side if I can finish some of the shorter ones it'll mean more frequent updates for the longer ones.**

 **Anyway, with that said, here's the next chapter. Read and Review please!**

* * *

 **~~~~~~Fairy Tail Guild Hall~~~~~~**

"How is the battle with Tartaros progressing, Warren?" Erza Scarlet kept one hand on the hilt of her sword as she spoke to their resident telepath. It really irked her that she remained here in the guild watching an unconscious body while her friends engaged in combat with the strongest force they'd been pitted against yet.

"It's difficult to say," Warren said. "It seems that so far they've only encountered weak mages that attack with large numbers."

"They're probably attempting to weaken them before they engage with their more powerful dark mages," Erza said, frowning. "I should be there with them!"

"Oh lighten up." She turned to see Gildarts, the second appointed guardian. "Makarov wouldn't have sent us here if this weren't important." He then proceeded to grab another barrel of alcohol, tilting it toward the ceiling. He paused only a moment before putting his lips to the spout to say, "Besides, it's not every day you get to drink all you want in return for watching someone who's not going anywhere."

Erza growled, turning her attention back toward the guild. Other than herself and Gildarts, mainly B and C class mages remained in the guild. There were a couple A class mages who just weren't powerful enough to be considered for the S class trials yet (or as a partner), but everyone that she should be fighting with was on the front lines. Simon. Ultear. Erik. Even Zeref and Gray were all battling the demons of Tartaros.

And she, one of the most powerful women in Fairy Tail, was left to stand guard over the black mage. The most feared mage in all history, who was apparently comatose for the last one hundred years and possibly not as bad as everyone thought. And to make things worse, her company sucked.

As much as she appreciated Gildarts' strength, the man was the absolute antithesis of a good role model, or even good company. He couldn't control anything! He drank so much she often wondered if he, Makarov, and Cana were somehow all related, which was kind of a creepy thought since Cana actually did kind of look like him a little bit. Not only that, she'd once snuck a peek inside his pack to see what kind of supplies he would bring on his journeys and discovered his collection of porn was even bigger than her erotic literature collection. And the insufferable man frequently bragged about his promiscuity. As if that weren't bad enough, he was so terrible at controlling his magic they had to restructure an entire city just to accommodate his arrival! With role models like him, it was no wonder her guild mates seemed to lack control!

Suddenly a man appeared in front of her inside the guild hall. Her sword was out and moving before she could even register his face, and when she did she was barely able to pull the move back in time. Standing in front of her was Mest Gryder, a serious expression on his face. With every ounce of her strength she just managed to stop her sword as the blade brushed against his forehead, drawing a tiny pinpoint of blood.

"What are you doing?! Don't teleport in suddenly like that. You could've died!" She yelled at him. What kind of an idiot would just suddenly appear in a guild that might be attacked at any time anyway?

"I'm sorry, but I came to warn you. Tartaros has sent a large number of their soldiers to the guild. Their goal is to retrieve the body of the black mage, Natsu."

Erza hesitated a moment, trying to read his eyes. Something seemed just a bit off about the black-haired man, even before this sudden appearance. She'd meant to ask Master Makarov about him privately, because despite knowing him and having an image of him always being there in her mind, she couldn't specifically remember anything Mest did for the guild.

*CRASH* She looked over to see that the guild doors had been blown open by the irresponsible mage that was currently her mission partner. This recalled to her mind her frustration about the guild master's decision. Not only did he leave her here, away from the main battle, but he left Gildarts with her.

But as her eyes raised and looked past the doors, she felt her anger lessen a bit. It seemed that Mest's warning was not in fact without basis. In fact, the guild was surrounded by a horde of mages that were apparently under the sway of their enemies.

Brandishing her sword, she strode forward, Gildarts beside her as they headed out of the guild. The moment their enemies saw them emerge, they charged forward.

Erza quickly requipped to her heaven's wheel armor, a gleam coming to her eyes. Though their opponents didn't look strong, they were very numerous. She would have to be careful of her magic power use if she wanted to have enough strength to withstand each wave. She summoned 50 swords, creating a large wheel as she approached the enemy footsoldiers.

"Dance my blades!" She watched the closest soldiers instantly go from attack to retreat mode, scrambling to get away from the approaching blades. A couple evaded the area of her attack, but more than 20 were caught in this initial strike.

She didn't have time to relax though, as she spun quickly, redirecting her dancing circle of swords to rain it down on a group of enemies who circled around her. To the side, she saw a group of at least a hundred fall from Gildarts' first attack. Despite the speed and agility of the attackers behind her, they were no match for the steel rain that assaulted them. Soon another 30 were down, but she was forced to turn the other way.

"Put your back to me!" She reacted to the command instantly, turning till her back was almost touching the older mage behind her. It only made sense in this kind of environment, since it allowed her to focus her energy on attacking and not watching her back. She saw no reason to change from her heaven's wheel armor. After all, it was best suited to mass attacks. She pulled her blades back again, this time creating a barrier in front of her before sending all 50 out into the approaching ranks.

"I had no idea Tartaros was this big!" She commented as she looked out over the still plentiful horde coming at them.

"It's said that they employ a large number of dark guilds to act as their foot soldiers," Gildarts replied. Erza spared a glance toward him only for her jaw to drop, her eye twitching. The reckless crash mage had completely destroyed the area in front of their guild! Ground was uprooted, broken, and sunken in various places. Anything resembling plant life was crushed, buried, or otherwise obliterated. Several hundred mages lay in literal piles on the ground, as others were now eyeing him warily from what they deemed a safe distance.

Then she realized that there was an enormous chunk of the corner of the guild missing. In fact, so enormous that several faces were staring out watching the battle. She felt her eye twitch again. Forgetting how much stronger the older mage was than her, she allowed her punishment instincts to kick in.

"YOU'RE DESTROYING THE GUILD!" She roared, but before she got any further she was reminded of her current situation as a fireball exploded on her back. She turned, channeling her fury into retaliating against the group that attacked her, this time with all 200 swords she could summon in this form. Steel rained down on the battlefield in front of her, piercing hundreds of her enemies and clearing a wide berth in front of her.

"S-scary!" A bunch of enemies yelled, giving her a slightly more respectful distance. But she wasn't done yet. She charged ahead, directing her wrath at the idiots who dared attack her while she was meting out punishment. Well, it was their funeral.

 **~~~~~~Tartaros~~~~~~**

Makarov stared grimly at the large cube in front of them. It had been hard to find, but thanks to Precht's memory and Zeref's amazing nose, they'd been able to backtrack his scent to figure out the guild's most recent location. After a long search involving the entire Tenrou party, they succeeded in reaching the gates of hell.

"Elfman," he said, his face still dark as he thought about the demons that dared attack his family, "why don't you knock for us?"

With a smirk the take over mage transformed his arm into that of a beast, assailing the doors and shattering them completely with a single blow. Makarov then led them into the main part of the guild, where they were greeted by a small group of foot soldiers.

"Everyone, stay in groups of 3 or more and split up," he commanded, facing the group of no more than 100 in front of them. "I'll take care of things here and join you. If any of you find something, let Warren know. He'll be relaying messages for us using his telepathy."

He watched as Zeref, Mirajane, and Lisanna headed to a hall leading to the left. Elfman, Evergreen, Freed, and Bixlow headed for a door toward the back of the room. A group of the foot soldiers went to intercept them, but Makarov acted quickly, crushing the closest ones with an enormous fist. Simon, Ultear, Erik, and Kinana headed down another tunnel. Then Gajeel, Gray, and Lucy ran off to the right. Laxus sniffed before motioning for Wendy and Ultear to follow him.

With everyone else gone, Makarov was able to focus on this fight. Not that it would be much of a fight. Sure, there were about a hundred of them, but none of them posed any real threat to speak of. With a roar he punched straight through the middle of the crowd, enlarging his fist to almost the size of the room. He followed it quickly with a second punch, catching a group that managed to get away from his first attack and smashing them against the far wall.

He swatted four more like flies, crushing them into the floor. A couple more fell below his right fist. He could get used to this! It reminded him of his younger days, when he fought on an almost daily basis with his group…

A few minutes later he was almost finished. But then something strange happened. Everyone he'd just crushed got up on their feet again and started coming at him. His eyes narrowed as he watched them drawing closer. So one of the demons of Tartaros could control the dead, eh? This was going to take longer than he thought…

 **~~~~~~Fairy Tail~~~~~~**

Erza looked out, panting, over the hordes of enemies that had fallen before them. It had taken a while, but between her and Gildarts they'd finally defeated the entire Tartaros army. Strange that there weren't as many as it seemed when they were fighting.

"Oh well," she said, standing and facing the guild. "Now we can go talk to Mest…."

She trailed off as she heard the noise of feet behind her. Tartaros had sent more? How many foot soldiers did they have anyway?! She turned quickly to gauge the strength of the new attackers, and felt her jaw fall open in dismay.

All the enemies they'd just knocked out were suddenly back on their feet, as though nothing happened. Even the ones that her sword had struck vital blows to, the ones she'd been sure were dead. They were all on their feet, every last one, and not looking the least bit tired!

"Tartaros must have someone who controls the dead," Gildarts yelled behind her. "The only way to defeat them is to obliterate their bodies."

"You mean… kill all of them?!" Erza looked out at the horde, unsure of her ability to follow through with that. It wasn't that she was afraid to kill somebody in a battle if it came to it, but to take the lives of all these soldiers indiscriminately? "Can't we just find the person behind them?"

"He could be a long way from here," Gildarts said. "Besides, they're already dead. I suspected it when we first started fighting them, but this only confirms it. Killing them won't be enough. You'll have to destroy their bodies so they can't get back up."

Erza scowled, requipping to her flame empress armor. If total destruction was required, she'd burn away her opponents till nothing but ashes remained. They could at least be sure that the ashes wouldn't get up and start coming after them. She cut a wide swath through a group that stood between her and Gildarts, knowing she'd have to get back to the Crash mage to keep their advantage.

She swiftly cut through the soldiers to regain the advantage they once had, noticing that the foot soldiers still seemed to keep a respectful distance from Gildarts. Yet even as she gained Gildarts' position and turned, a wall of the dark mages rushed in for the kill. Using the flames of her sword, she swept a burning arc in front of her, creating flames so intense that they turned anything the weapon touched to ashes.

Still, keeping this level of fire took a huge toll on her magic power. She doubted she'd have any left to join the main battle once this was done… If only Zeref were here, his flames would no doubt obliterate these things efficiently.

Behind her she could feel Gildarts' magic power rising. Apparently the crash mage was tired of his enemies staying out of his reach and decided to extend the reach of his attacks to counter. Of course he would. He didn't care about the massive destruction it would cause. He didn't give a thought to the headaches it would cause the master! It was obvious that this bad example was where some of the mages in the guild got their destructive tendencies from.

Not Erza, though. She was never destructive. If any damage occurred during her requests it was only because that was a side effect of the force necessary to adequately call the job complete. Unlike many others, Erza was not needlessly reckless.

A blow from a sword nicked her in the side as she barely blocked quickly enough, forcing her mind back to the battle at hand. A swarm of soldiers was coming at her, apparently having decided to take advantage of her momentary distraction. Right. Focus on nothing but the combat at hand.

The flames of the sword were so hot she was beginning to feel uncomfortable. She couldn't let up, though. If Gildarts' assessment was right this enemy would keep getting up till they were reduced to ash, or till their handler was killed. And their handler, it seemed, was safe in Tartaros at the moment. Either way, she couldn't count on them going down on their own. Another slash, and four or five more burned to ashes in front of her. But she already felt the ache of fatigue pulling at her muscles and her core. And there were so many to go…

 **~~~~~~Tartaros~~~~~~**

Zeref, Mirajane, and Lisanna rounded a corner, running quickly now as they progressed toward what Zeref's nose told them would be the holding place for their human experiments. They were moving so fast that they almost didn't see the full-breasted female with long, dark hair standing on the side of the hallway they'd just entered. Almost.

Zeref felt his heart stop, it was such a near thing. Barely had his eyes registered her presence when a clawed hand was almost on top of him. His feet planted into the concrete and reversed his direction at a speed that should have been physically impossible, and still he barely avoided the blow that rushed by inches from his face. Fortunately, the blow to the back of his head as he fell backward was cushioned by two soft pillows. Zeref almost felt relaxed despite the battle that was just beginning as he snuggled back into them. What kind of guild kept pillows on the floor anyway?

"Mmmm.. You know Zeref, I could think of lots of more appropriate places to start something." Zeref's feet were under him again faster than should've been humanly possible at the half-seductive, half-taunting voice behind him. He tried as hard as he could to ignore the blood that he knew was rushing to his face, focusing all his energy instead on the enemy who now stepped out to face them. She seemed to be focused on Mirajane at the moment, however. Turning, Zeref saw the silver-haired take over mage was also focused on her opponent.

The bizarre thing was that they both stood there, locked in a staring contest. As much as he wanted to kick the shit out of the demoness that just attacked him, Zeref felt like he shouldn't interfere. Perhaps it was the fact that he could swear invisible lightning continually leapt between the two opponents' eyes. Then again, maybe he was still a tad embarrassed about rubbing his head in Mirajane's soft, cushiony breasts…

"I'm surprised," The demoness spoke in a voice that was actually quite pretty, breaking the silence between them. "It seems my macro doesn't work on you."

"That's my line," Mirajane responded. "I thought this would be an easy fight since you're a demon, but it seems my take over won't work on you."

"Of course your take over wouldn't work on me," the demoness replied with an arrogant smirk that seemed out of place with her soft, pretty voice. "I'm an etherious created by Natsu. You can't compare us to those other creatures that call themselves demons."

"I guess I'll just have to beat you without my signature move," Mirajane said with a grin. Zeref couldn't help grinning as well as he ignited his fists. He could tell this would be a good battle even if all three of them took her on at once.

"I'll just have to show you the power of Tartaros then," the female demoness responded. "The power of Sayla, one of the nine demon gates."

Zeref's instincts kicked in before he saw the attack coming, and he pulled fire-encased arms across his chest in an the shape of an x. The block came just in time, as hundreds of ...books?... came flying at him from the demoness. He saw Mirajane also blocking the books, but shifting to her Satan Soul. Lisanna was hit by the attack, unable to block it fully in time. She went tumbling back to the end of the hall, hitting the wall hard.

Zeref frowned, but was unable to worry too much about her at the moment. It wasn't surprising that she would be the first to go down, after all, as the only A class mage of the group. That was with good reason, of course. Though he couldn't deny that she had potential, the girl didn't really apply herself to training. For that reason, her sister would be forever beyond her reach, and even her brother, though not S class yet, was a greater asset in battle.

He dodged another attack before inhaling deeply, needing to do something to break the constant stream coming at him. "Fire Dragon's Roar!" The attack tore through the books, hitting the demoness squarely. Knowing better than to believe their opponent was down for good from a single roar, Zeref took the opportunity to charge forward, aiming to get in close to the demoness.

The ploy worked, and he soon found himself in hand-to-hand combat with his opponent. She was actually surprisingly good, and powerful. His blows were each blocked expertly, and for every hit he got on her she delivered an equally powerful punch or kick to his body. Because of the speed of their battle, he didn't even have enough time to charge his most powerful attacks.

He knew what he had to do to change that. He'd have to separate from the hand-to-hand battle long enough to charge a powerful move or accept a full blow and trust his body to absorb the damage well enough to keep battling. Neither of these were optimal. On the one hand, he would leave himself and Mira open to the demoness's ranged attacks again. On the other, he didn't know how powerful a hit she might take once she saw him start to charge a spell up.

More blows were exchanged, but he barely felt them. They were apparently pretty equal in hand to hand combat. Finally Zeref made his decision. Really it was the only decision. Waiting for the right time in the fight sequence. Of course there were steps to take first. With each successive attack he initiated, he turned his body, a little at a time, toward the right, inching his way in a circular pattern to the right side. Of course, she simply turned to meet him, taking advantage of the extra effort to land a couple more small blows to his chest and side. But now he was ready. Without waiting or trying to create separation, he started one of his stronger moves, steeling his body against the blow he knew was coming.

The hit came, and he wasn't fully ready for it. Still, he managed to ignore the pain as his body pushed back, and used the wall as a brace from which to launch his attack.

"Fire Dragon's Sword Horn!" The power of his attack broke through Sayla's block, sending her crashing through the wall into what appeared to be some kind of a prison cell. From the corner of his eye Zeref saw Mirajane come up to join him as he stood in a ready stance, waiting to see how much damage he did.

"Thanks for the help," he said sarcastically, shooting her a sideways glance.

"I figured you had it covered," she said with a grin. "And from the looks of it, I was right." She gestured toward the demoness, currently on her back against the opposite wall.

Sayla got up slowly across the room, her formerly emotionless eyes suddenly registering anger. But the frustration quickly flickered away, leaving them emotionless once more.

"I see in your eyes that you think you can beat me now, but allow me to show you how wrong you are… Etherious mode!"

With that she began to change. Before his eyes, horns suddenly appeared on her head. Her face seemed to thin, her eyes to narrow into a predatory shape. Her magic power shot up as well, and he took a step back, steeling his resolve.

He felt Mirajane's magic power flare next to him, and knew that this was going to be a 2 on 1 fight. That was fine. After all, he wasn't sure he could win a one-on-one battle with Sayla. Mirajane was on Erza's level, a level which Zeref himself believed he was quickly approaching. It wasn't easy. After all, Mirajane and Erza were both a year older than him, and neither of them let up on their training for even a second. In fact, Mira had turned down a modeling offer from Sorcerer, saying the model business wasn't really her cup of tea and would cut into her training time too much.

He admired both Erza and Mira for that, but now wasn't the time to dwell on it. Zeref jumped back, his arms crossed defensively in front of him again as a new, more formidable attack was launched his way. This time his defense wasn't quite enough. He withstood the assault for several moments before being thrown into the opposite wall, his back hitting it so hard the wind was momentarily knocked from his body.

During that moment, Mirajane jumped straight into Sitri mode and charged in. Sayla reacted quickly, though, her assault on Zeref ending just fase enough for her to get out of the way of a devastating kick from the transformed take over mage.

Great. If she was taking it up a notch, so would he. His new trump card was untested, but this seemed like the perfect time to try it out.

A glint came to his eyes as he focused on his need for more magic power. It was time to call on it. The power that, if trained enough, could kill dragons. He closed his eyes, feeling the power increase beyond the limits of his current body. Scales appeared, he could almost feel the elongating of his canines, the narrowing of his eyes to slits. When he re-opened them, they glowed with the fire that raged within him. The weight of the power that could attack with the force of a dragon. Dragon Force.

 **~~~~~~Fairy Tail~~~~~~**

How long had it been since they started fighting? She didn't know, but she hoped these foot soldiers would exhaust their numbers soon. It was taking more discipline to keep her movements crisp. Each swipe more exhausting to her body.

Gildarts seemed to not be tired at all. Trust the ace of Fairy Tail to be so overpowered that he could probably have taken out this whole army single-handed. Focus, Erza, focus. There are still more enemies that need to be taken out.

With a grunt she sliced into another opponent, the fire erupting from her blade and consuming everything, leaving a pile of ashes where the soldier once stood. She regretted experimentally letting a few remain unburnt earlier, wanting to test if Gildarts was right. Perhaps she would be done by now if not for that ridiculous move.

Another group, perhaps 4 this time. Charging hard at her, screaming in determination. She thought she could see a glint of hope in their eyes, as though the fear from earlier had departed. Did they think she was weakened enough to be taken out so easily? Rage erupted within her, giving her the strength for another, even more vicious swipe. Just like that the 4 of them were blown away, reduced instantly to ashes.

She stood, sword ready as she waited for the next group. Where were they? The never-ending stream hadn't relented before. Not for an instant. Panting, she raised her head to look beyond the area immediately in front of her. She could hardly believe her own eyes! No more soldiers approached over the charred terrain ahead of her. In fact, there wasn't a single person, dead or otherwise, in sight! She would've cheered if she could've mustered the energy.

She turned back from the guild, and nearly fainted right there. The initial destruction had been multiplied. The left half as she was facing it was obliterated entirely, and a deep chasm led down into what appeared to be a new canyon that ran out into the forest. Gildarts, beside her, was rubbing the back of his head sheepishly as he stared out over his handiwork.

"Heh, guess I overdid it," he said with that irritating grin. She was about to retort when her eyes went through the open door and noticed something absent. Something the two of them were charged to protect…

Anger gave her energy again as she stalked forward to the guild. How could this have happened? She knew neither she nor Gildarts had let a single enemy reach the guild, so how could his body be gone?

But before she could berate her fellow guildmates for allowing the body to be stolen while they fought, exhaustion overtook her anger. Her consciousness slipped away, and she fell limp to the floor of the guild.

* * *

So there you have it. Drop a review if you liked it. Or if you didn't :P


	5. Chapter 5

****DISCLAIMER** I don't own Fairy Tail or the characters. Mashima does! **DISCLAIMER****

Ok, so here comes chapter 5 of Immortal Love. As stated previously, my intent is to finish this in the next couple chapters and then move on to some of my other shorter stories. Once I clear those out, I can focus on some of the longer stories more without waiting so long between updates.

There weren't really too many reviews for the last chapter. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing lol. But anyway, a few of the users had comments I'd like to talk about for a minute.

 **DDraig:** I don't really ship Mirajane with anyone but Natsu either, but in a sort of roundabout way Zeref in this story kind of is Natsu's counterpart. I think Zeref could've been a pretty cool character if he hadn't gone all crazy and created the demons that were responsible for so much terror and pain in the human world. This story has kind of been my chance to spin Zeref into the role of Natsu, only with a more intelligent and slightly more reserved approach to things. So honestly, I don't really see it as breaking my ship.

 **Timothy (chapter 3 review):** I agree with your assessment of Natsu in canon. He's unfortunately a very cookie-cutter Shonen protagonist. I often wonder why shonen can't have male protagonists who inspire other people _and_ are actually smart, with some depth to them.

Anyway, that's enough for now. On to the story! Oh, and don't be afraid to drop reviews. :P

* * *

Zeref felt an uncharacteristic smirk on his face as he looked at his opponent. The thrill of the dragon force filled him, its unquenchable thirst for blood urging him to tear into his opponent. The demoness and Mirajane had ceased their fighting, both staring at him with disbelief on their faces.

Mirajane, predictably, was the first to recover. "Looks cool, but can you actually do anything with it?" She said, sticking her tongue out at him.

Oh, that stuck up little bitch. He would show her exactly what he could do with dragon force. And then maybe he could show her what he could do with those soft mounds of - hey! Where'd that come from? He was in the middle of battle right now.

Apparently it wasn't just battle instincts and magic power that dragon force enhanced, because his senses were beyond unreal now. He could hear Makarov's battle still going back in the entrance area. Apparently other guild members had engaged some of the demon gates as well. Well, one of the demons was a noisy bastard. He was surprised that even the demons put up with that grating voice! Maybe they just had no choice…

The scent of blood and sweat assailed his nose. If the demoness were human, he may have been able to read her emotions just from that scent, but it was impossible. Her posture seemed alert, but not fearful. Her eyes, recovered now from seeing his dragon force for the first time, reflected nothing but the emptiness that seemed their natural state.

"I'll show you exactly what I can do," he finally answered Mirajane's taunt before launching forward. The demoness moved too, but now her movements seemed much slower before. Where he'd previously been forced to let his instincts take over at her approach, he could now follow the movements and even plan a counter. She was aiming a kick at his midsection, but from her posture the kick would turn out to be a feint. She wanted him to block that kick, and planned to follow up with something either to his head or his legs. From the angle of the kick, her fastest option would be to go down.

So that was it, she was planning to impair his movement. Too bad for her his body operated at much higher levels with dragon force activated. With a smirk, he dodged underneath the first attack, at the same time bringing a flame-coated knee up to meet her second strike. The attack broke through the demoness's attempt to cripple him in the fight and connected solidly with her side. Using the continuing momentum, he grabbed both horns and used them to increase her angular momentum, kicking his other foot out and pushing her over him and toward the wall behind him. Thanks to his increased speed, he was back on his feet and facing her by the time she hit the opposite wall.

In a split second she leapt back to her feet, and another long-range attack hit him hard. He was forced to block again with his arms to avoid damage to his head and neck. Then she rocketed toward him again, her speed so phenomenal he would've been unable to counter in any other form.

Fortunately, his Dragon Force enhanced his speed to the point where he could easily keep pace. He blocked a blow to his legs, while almost simultaneously twisting down and to the side to avoid the follow-up strike toward his head. Even with all the movement, he managed to catch the foot, which was more like a steel blade, that rocketed toward his side. He used the momentum, twisting his body further to bring her above him while simultaneously delivering a hard kick to her ribcage. This time he didn't wait. As she rocketed into the ceiling, his feet planted under him and he leapt up toward her, flames encircling his fists. "Fire Dragon King's Demolition Fist!"

The attack drove her up and through the ceiling, but it also destroyed the ceiling. And the surrounding ceiling. And the walls nearby. And the ceiling over those walls.

Yeah, he might've overdone it quite a bit.

But still, he thought as his dragon force faded. There'd been a real urgency to finish this fight quickly. Dragon force drained a lot of magic power, and this might not even be their only battle of the day.

"Declaring it over already?" He glanced at Mirajane, who was still in her Satan Soul beside him. He offered her a smirk. "Of course. She'll be out for sure after that hit."

He'd barely finished speaking when the demoness fell from the sky, her body reverting to her less demonic looking form when it hit. For a moment she struggled as though she were about to get up again. Seeing her lips moving, Zeref focused his attention on trying to hear what she was saying.

"I get why it wouldn't work on the white-haired bitch, but why wouldn't it work on him?" She muttered, still struggling to move. However, her body wasn't going anywhere, and soon her eyes closed and she went limp on the ground.

"New take over!" Mirajane said happily, and while she started collecting Sayla's soul to join her other take overs Zeref went to check on Lisanna. She was still sitting against the wall, looking out at the fight with an odd glazed over look in her eyes.

"Is something wrong, Lisanna?" Zeref asked the white haired mage. She didn't look as enthusiastic or bubbly as he was used to seeing.

"I'll never be able to really contribute in a fight," she mumbled, her head on her knees. "You guys are way beyond me…"

Zeref rubbed the back of his head. If she really wanted to contribute, she should stop slacking off so much with her training! Still, he didn't say that. What she was thinking right now, in the midst of battle, wouldn't matter as much to her once this was all over and done with.

"Perhaps you'll never be one of the strongest in battle," he said, choosing his words carefully, "but I think there are other things that you're good at that are more important. You wouldn't be Lisanna if you devoted yourself to being stronger."

She seemed to think about that for a moment before getting up. "Heh, I guess you're right," she said quietly. "I often wish I could contribute more to the guild fights, but we all have different roles to play after all."

Zeref nodded. "Right, so let's continue. Your sister should be done collecting Sayla's soul by now."

Sure enough, when he turned around and headed back with Lisanna, Mirajane had acquired a new take over, which, of course, she was only too happy to demonstrate for them briefly.

"Now you won't have an edge over me anymore," she said, sticking her tongue out at Zeref. The fire dragon slayer just rolled his eyes. He had been the one to take the demoness out, after all.

Then again, a full-scale magic duel between the two of them would leave the guild in smithereens. So yeah, maybe not a good idea.

Anyway, now they had a more important task. They'd defeated one enemy, but the battle was far from over. As they took off down the hallway, Zeref all but forgot the demoness's words.

 **~~~~~~Mavis~~~~~~**

"Sounds like Fairy Tail got here earlier than expected," Mard Geer said with a frown. He was currently standing next to Mavis's cell, where the small blonde mage was hooked up to some metal device that pierced both arms. She could feel that the device was somehow feeding off her, but it wasn't affecting her magic power. She could only assume that meant it was using the power of her curse, as Mard Geer had threatened.

"You made the mistake of underestimating Fairy Tail," Mavis replied, glaring defiantly at the guild master of Tartaros. "Soon this whole place will be destroyed, and you with it."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Mard Geer replied. "Things are proceeding exactly as planned." An evil smirk crossed his face, and Mavis suddenly felt another magic presence in the room.

"Here's the body you required," Mavis gasped as a man with short black hair and an X-shaped scar on his face appeared in front of Mard Geer, holding a body that was very familiar. Mard Geer took the body and then knocked the man out, all in one quick move.

"You had a traitor in our guild?" She hissed, recognizing Mest from the S-class trials.

"Have you forgotten already, Mavis? One of my lovely demonesses can turn anyone into a traitor," the demon replied, the evil smirk still on his face.

"But there wasn't time for him to make it to the guild and back," Mavis protested. She hadn't forgotten about Sayla, but even someone as fast as Mest would've taken at least a couple hours to get to the guild and return here.

"Ah, I suppose this is what you get for not watching your guild grow," Mard Geer returned as he began hooking Natsu's body up to some kind of machine. "Makarov would never rush in without sending someone to scope out the place first. Unfortunately for him, their spy was intercepted and given special instructions… She wanted to have him blow up the guild building too, but it was kind of pointless just to take out the weaklings that were left behind. Of course, that doesn't mean I didn't leave them any 'gifts'," he added with a smirk.

He then strapped Natsu down with the same anti-magic bands that were on Mavis. She watched as he walked over to what looked like some kind of a control panel. "Now, this might hurt a bit," he said before flipping the switch suddenly.

Mavis couldn't hold back the scream as pain ripped through her body. It felt as if her insides were on fire, and at the same time being shredded by thousands of tiny razors. She was certain she would pass out from the intensity of the pain. Yet for what seemed an eternity, her mind refused to succumb to darkness.

Finally the pain receded, and Mavis lay there gasping for air, tears squeezing out of her eyes. The aftershock of the pain was almost as bad as the moment itself. Despite no longer being under its effects, her body ached and trembled whenever she tried to move. Even so, with considerable effort, she managed to raise her head, looking in the direction of Natsu and Mard Geer.

What she saw caused her heart to almost stop within her. A triumphant Mard Geer stood over Natsu, his lips curled into a sneer as he examined his maker. Natsu's coal-black eyes were open, staring up at the master of Tartaros and one of its strongest demons.

"Perhaps you would like to explain yourself, Mard Geer?" Natsu's voice reached her, quiet but hard and cold as ice. She felt herself shivering, unconsciously attempting to wrap her arms around herself, though her restraints wouldn't allow it. This was a tone her Natsu-kun only used when he was very angry, and anything that followed was sure not to be pleasant.

"Not happy to see me, Lord Natsu?" Apparently Mard Geer was unphased by Natsu's tone. "Well, I suppose I can understand that, given the circumstances, but you are in no position to make demands."

"This device, it's siphoning the power of Ankhseram's curse." Natsu seemed to ignore the demon master of Tartaros, focusing instead on analyzing the situation. "You're attempting to use the power of a god's curse to become more powerful?"

Mavis couldn't help smiling a little inside. Natsu may not have been as intellectually gifted as she was, but 400 years of experience with magic and the world more than compensated for anything he initially lacked.

Mard Geer scowled, apparently not liking the fact that he was ignored. "It seems you didn't need my explanation. I suppose I should expect that much from the man who created me and my fellow etherious. But even such a great wizard is powerless under our anti-magic bindings."

Mavis watched as Natsu tugged against the bindings on each side a few times. Yep, still the same Natsu… Then he turned his attention back to the etherious. "It seems you've changed quite a bit from your original purpose. I assume you found some way to break rules I set for you in your books."

Mavis felt her heart sink as Mard Geer smirked, pointing one of his clawed fingers in her direction. "We have Lady Mavis to thank for that, actually. She allowed us to know the thrill of hurting people. She made us realize we could break the commands you set up for us. Indeed, without her, none of this would be possible. So we, the future gods of Earthland, thank Lady Mavis for awakening us to what could be."

Natsu turned his head in her direction, but she was unable to meet his gaze. Tears dripped from her eyes as she thought again of the number of people that suffered because of her. The countless innocents the demons had tortured in pursuit of their goal, or just for fun even. She didn't dare look back at him for several minutes for fear of meeting his eyes.

"I see," Natsu said after several long moments. There was nothing in his voice that had changed, and Mavis had to look over again to see if there were any visible signs of anger. "So Mavis gave you freedom to choose your own way, and you chose the way of cruelty? You chose to take joy in bringing pain to those you were meant to protect?"

"Ah, but surely you understand, Lord Natsu. I have heard the rumors of you, the black wizard, more feared even than we have become over these last few years. Surely this is not by accident. You know the joy of watching the helpless humans squirm beneath your hands. The delight of hearing their screams of agony. That exquisite expression of terror on their faces when they finally realize that they are insignificant worms before you."

"Not at all," Natsu replied, his voice still ice cold. "Rather, the sorrow of death drove me away from people. To avoid causing death, I distanced myself from my own kind. People came to fear me as a legend because I was unknown. Perhaps recently that fear has grown because you, my etherious, have turned to the wrong direction. But I myself have never intentionally harmed or killed an innocent human."

Mavis looked down, a helpless feeling overtaking her again. If only she'd left fate alone… But… But she couldn't! Not after finding someone she could care for so much! Not after that….

 **~~~~~~Flashback, approximately 100 years prior~~~~~~**

Mavis Vermilion fled from the guild she'd created, her heart trembling. This was the curse that Natsu had spoken of! Now Yury's son, Makarov, would never know his mother. And Yury… Yury would be devastated!

But the worst of it was that it was all her fault. Yury's wife only died because she cared about her. Because seeing the precious baby showed her the value of life. And the more she valued life, the more people would die.

Tears streaked down her face as she looked down at her hands. How did he do it? From their few conversations previously, she gathered that he'd been wandering Earthland for at least 300 years. 300 years living under such a curse… She didn't know if she could take it! What good was immortality if it came with such horrible conditions? She didn't want it! She didn't want any of it!

She didn't know how long she'd been wandering when she found him, far away from civilization as usual. The first thing she did was cry. For what felt like hours she let the flood of sorrow and guilt pour out onto his chest while he held her. She saw tears form in his own eyes as he looked on her, and she remembered, oh so clearly, his last words to her when they last parted.

 **~~~~~~Some years prior~~~~~~**

"Natsu, thank you so much for teaching us all magic! You've been so kind to us all." Mavis stood there, a bright smile on her face as she looked at the teen with the pink hair.

"I'm glad I was able to help, but I've taken you as far as I can. I must be going now."

For some reason her heart fell at that. She'd only known the pink-haired man for a short time, but his smile, his soft, yet sad eyes, the kind way he always spoke to them even when they weren't getting what he was trying to teach them… They'd all left an impact on her heart, and she'd imagined that he would be joining them in their quest to recapture the town. "Why do you need to leave? Can't you come with us?"

"I've given you all that I can. You must walk your own path now," Natsu replied quietly.

"Please!" Mavis felt tears coming to her eyes. "I want you to stay with us! Can't you stay - for me?"

His smile faded, a portrait of sorrow taking its place. "It is for your sake that I must go."

"What do you mean? I want you to stay with me! I want to know you better. I think… I know I'm still young, but I think I may love you."

"All the more reason for me to leave," Natsu said quietly. "I'm cursed, Mavis. I may not look like it, but I'm over 300 years old. My curse keeps me alive, but it kills the people I love… If I stick around, you'll be another victim of the curse."

Too shocked by the revelation to protest, Mavis could do nothing but stare as the pink-haired mage turned and walked off into the forest. Even Zera's teasing failed to pull her out of her trance for several long minutes, but when she did recover she found tears stinging her eyes. 300 years of seeing anyone you dare to care for get taken away from you? Nobody should have to endure that!

 **~~~~~~Current moment~~~~~~**

"Say Natsu," Mavis whispered. Her tears were spent now, and she sat next to him, her head leaning on his shoulder. "It should be ok now, right? Since I'm cursed too… I won't die if you care for me."

"Hmm?" Natsu looked at her, his eyes reflecting doubt. "I don't know if that's the case… Perhaps it is, but I just don't know…"

Mavis looked up at him, meeting his onyx eyes with the hope reflected in his heart. "Of course it is. We're both cursed now, but at least we have each other. Maybe we can't make friends with the rest of the world, but I'll be safe from your curse and you'll be safe from mine."

Natsu frowned. "I would like to think it works that way, but I can't be sure. It's been far too long since I allowed myself to hope. I don't know if I can do it again."

A sadness settled on her heart at those words. Sure, she knew he wandered around the world for over 300 years, but she never really allowed herself to consider what that meant. That moment of hopelessness, of grief that she felt as she fled from the guild… She couldn't imagine living that way for a single lifetime, let alone 300 years! How had he managed to survive it without going crazy?

Still, she wasn't going to let that dictate their future. She found a smile somewhere in her heart as she picked her head up, leaning carefully toward him. "Then don't," she whispered, her lips inches from his face. "One day I'm sure you'll learn to have hope for the future. Until then, I'll hope for both of us."

He turned his face toward her, his expression unreadable. She quickly seized the moment to capture his lips in a long, gentle kiss, feeling a smile form as he slowly returned the kiss. No sooner had she finished than their positions were reversed, his head now falling gently onto her shoulder. She smiled, noting that his eyes were closed.

"How cute," she muttered, gently combing her fingers through his hair as he leaned against her. "I always assumed that you just didn't sleep…" A small frown came to her delicate features. Something wasn't quite right, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

It took several moments before she realized what the problem was. His body was limp, as might be expected of someone who was sleeping. But there were no signs of breath as he rested against her. "Natsu?" She said tentatively, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him slightly in an attempt to wake him up. "Natsu, wake up!" She pleaded, icy fingers gripping her heart and filling her body with bone-chilling fear. "Don't leave me alone! NATSU!" Her eyes flooded with tears as his form fell limply into her lap.

She calmed a little when she realized that there was still some life left in him. He wasn't dead, yet. Just very, very close. She could stop the process. She could preserve his almost-dead body till she found a way to revive it. But who could she get to help her? No human would aid in resurrecting the mysterious wizard who was feared by most and considered dangerous by all others.

But wait, what about the etherious? Natsu told her he created them for the purpose of finally finding the peace of death, but perhaps their purpose could be changed? Surely she could convince them to help her revive him. Maybe they could even find a way to get rid of this curse that plagued them.

 **~~~~~~End Flashback~~~~~~**

Mavis clenched her fists, about the only movement she could manage in her current state. All the work she'd done, selfishly trying to bring him back without thinking about the consequences. Now were they doomed to an eternity strapped to these devices? Fuel for the power-hungry demons she created in her thoughtless endeavors?

"With this, I'll finally have enough power," Mard Geer proclaimed, lips curled into a sneer. "I will revive the last demon. The one contained in the black book, and nothing will stop us."

The last demon? Did he not know who Zeref was? Mavis realized that she'd never talked to the Etherious about Natsu's brother. What is possible that Natsu never revealed it to them either? If so, was there a reason he never spoke of him? Honestly, she didn't know much about Natsu's relationship with the Etherious. They seemed to hold him in high regard, unable to escape the habit of calling him 'Lord Natsu' even when they were, effectually, rebelling against him.

"Are you sure you want to do that, Mard Geer?" Natsu asked, his eyes narrowing. "It may not turn out the way you believe it would."

"You can't trick me, Lord Natsu," the demon replied as he came back into sight, holding a book that was black as midnight. No visible markings could be seen on it, and even the edges of the pages were onyx-black. "I discovered this book that you've tried to hide from us almost 30 years ago now, but I found I didn't have the power to open it. But thanks to Mavis, that power is now ours!"

With that, Mard Geer put his hand over the book and began chanting a curse Mavis didn't recognize, but the general pattern seemed consistent with sealing spells. She looked at Natsu, who was just watching the proceedings with that infuriating unreadable expression he would get so often. Did he intend to just lay there and watch?

 **~~~~~~Elsewhere in Tartaros~~~~~~**

Zeref groaned, not that he could hear it at the moment. Who would have thought they would run into a demon this powerful? Now he couldn't hear. Couldn't see. Even his sense of smell was taken from him. Even if he moved, he had no idea which way he was moving. No sense on which to base his attacks. He couldn't even fight like this. Was this how it ended?

Pain. The one sense he had left shot through him in agonizing waves, blossoming out from a point in his side. He had no other indication he'd been attacked. He couldn't even begin to describe the agony. Could barely tell if he was still standing. But he couldn't give up. Not yet. His arms crossed in front of his face and neck, hoping to at least protect enough of those vital areas.

Another shot of pain, quickly followed by pain from another direction. He'd just been hit again, and the shot had driven him into something. He clenched his fists in frustration, unable to feel the motion but still knowing that was what was happening. There had to be some way to overcome this curse. There had to be some way to press forward.

But he was beginning to despair of an answer. This was just too powerful. There was no way to break the handicap of having no sight, no hearing, and no way to sense anything. He just couldn't win this one.

"I'm sorry, everyone," he whispered. He knew their opponent was just playing with them now, tormenting them till she decided to strike the final blow… how long would she be entertained this way? He could only hope it would be long enough for someone stronger to save them…

But then, at the brink of despair, something unexpected happened. A new power flooded into him. Foreign, yet eerily familiar, almost as though he were learning to walk again. Or perhaps just remembering…

Yes. This familiar feeling. He could use it. With a wave of his hand the opponent's curse power was nullified. He barely has to blink as his eyes adjust rapidly to the inpouring of light. Kyouka was moving again, but she's sluggish. Not nearly as fast as she was before. With an air of finality he summoned his flames. Not his dragon slayer flames… No, these flames are specifically made to kill demons. Letting her come forward, he waited till the last instant, letting her believe she could still regain the advantage. Then he stepped aside at the last second, not giving her enough time to register the attack before letting the hungry flames in his hands consume her.

"What- what happened?" Mirajane's voice next to him caused him to turn, and he realized that she must've just been released from the curse. As he turned to face her, he noticed that Lisanna was still in the area, staring at her hands in surprise. So everyone was freed from the curse. Good.

"Zeref, you managed to beat her curse power?" Mirajane's voice sounded mystified as she stared at him, her eyes wide. "How? I'm still stronger than you, so how?.."

Somehow Zeref knew that wasn't true anymore, but he wasn't about to say that to her. He just shrugged his shoulders instead. "I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but I do know we're getting close. Come on, let's hurry and find the first master."

"Are you sure this is the right way?" Mira asked. Good, she decided to let it go at that.

He nodded, tapping his nose. "Of course I'm sure." The motion was only a half lie. He'd been following his nose up till a moment ago, but now he could sense the demonic energy. The strongest demon was definitely in the direction they were headed. It wouldn't be long now till they reached their destination.

With the two girls following him, he rushed off toward the strongest concentrated demonic power that he could feel in the building. He was sure they'd reach their goal there.

 **~~~~~~Elsewhere in Tartaros~~~~~~**

Gray glared at the man in front of him. It had been many long years since he'd last seen him, and this was how he chose to act? He might as well not be his father!

That and the bastard pulled him away from the fight with Lucy and Gajeel. That meant he had to trust fucking iron-brains to take the necromancer out. Lucy's spirits would be a good distraction at best.

"So what will you do, Gray? You can't beat me with ice, and you can't use magic to defeat me."

He growled, realizing that part of the problem was him. How could he defeat his father if he didn't believe in the magic his teacher gave him? Ur was a wizard saint! Just because his 'father' was immune to his ice attacks doesn't mean his ice was.

Narrowing his eyes, he noticed a large rock behind Silver. Yes, that would do nicely. Despite the man's claims, he just wasn't buying the whole "I'm the demon that killed your parents'" bit. If anything, despite being an asshole, he was too much like his dad for that to be true.

Forming blades of ice on his hands, he charged Silver again. "How many times must I tell you your ice can't hurt me?" Silver asked as he moved out of the way again. Gray smirked as he continued his attack, turning it downward to shatter the ice around the rock, using his body to obscure the action from the ice devil slayer behind him.

"Ice Cannon!" He turned toward Silver, hoping the man didn't see the large boulder that was loaded in the canon in front of the ice ball that would fire it.

Silver frowned. "You're dumber than I expected… So in the end all you can do is just keep trying to hit me with your ice? I guess I have-"

Whatever he was going to say got cut short by the impact of the boulder with his chest. It drove him back and into the ground, making a sickening 'crunch' on the impact. Gray raced to pick up the boulder before his father got back to his feet, holding it at the ready so he could attack again at any moment. To his surprise, Silver didn't get up right away. He pushed himself onto his elbow, facing Gray while holding his chest with one hand.

"That's impossible. How did you break through my ice?" He said, his eyes wide with surprise.

"That may be devil slayer ice, but my teacher had the power of a wizard saint," Gray said with a smirk. "Her ice can break anything."

"I will admit to being surprised," Silver said, getting back in the ready. "But that doesn't change anything. I can still kill you right here if I need to, just like I killed your parents."

Gray scoffed. "Yeah, you can drop the act dad. You're not fooling anybody with that half-assed attempt."

"I told you, I'm-"

"And I told you stuff it! You think I can't see through your words?! I don't know how you're here. I don't know how you're alive. Most of all, I don't know how you could choose to ally yourself with a bunch of demons! But if you insist on getting in my way, I must defeat you. Father or not, I cannot let you stop Fairy Tail from achieving our goal."

He watched warily as his father relaxed his fighting posture, his eyes now bearing a resigned look. "Since you've seen through my attempt to disguise it, I suppose I must tell you. I was resurrected some time ago by one of the nine demon gates. The demon was a necromancer, and apparently found me interesting enough to make one of his 'experiments.' I decided to learn devil slayer magic for two reasons. The second, I'll get to eventually. The first is obvious, because it would allow me to kill demons."

"That's also the reason I'm in this guild. It's easier to find demons when I'm in a whole guild full of etherious. Of course, it's been more difficult keeping my identity a secret from them, but I was able to destroy many demons nonetheless. But I learned something while I was in the guild. Something that nobody else knows. There is another demon created by Natsu. Even the demon gates don't know what he looks like or what his powers are. They only know he is the most powerful of Natsu's demons. I've heard Mard Geer talk of it several times. They say his power is hidden away in a book that is completely black, no markings on it whatsoever. The seal is so powerful that even Mard Geer is unable to open it. As for the demon, they currently call him the 'nameless one.' If they succeed in resurrecting him, nowhere in earthland will be safe from him."

Suddenly, to Gray's surprise, Silver's body began to fade. "My time is running out. The necromancer must have been defeated," he said. "There is one more reason I chose to learn devil slayer magic, Gray. That is that it can be passed from father to son." With that he took Gray's hand in his, and Gray felt a dark power spreading into his body. He also noticed a black tattoo on his arm that hadn't been there a moment ago. Was this devil slayer magic?

No, more than that. Who was Mard Geer? What of the other demon gates? If there were 9, including Silver, his group had just taken down two, but that left 7 more, scattered throughout the guild of Tartaros. If all of them were as powerful as Silver and the necromancer, would it even be possible for them to take all of them on.

He clenched his fist, feeling the new power welling through him. What was he worried about? With this new power, he could take on at least a couple more. Natsu and Mira were sure to take down one or two, and Laxus…. Well, that monster could probably take out half the demons by himself. Yeah, Fairy Tail had nothing to worry about.

Just then his newly awakened devil slayer powers alerted him to a rush of massive demonic energy inside the guild. It was brief, but it took hold of his soaring hope and crushed it back to the ground. If this flash of power was any indication, the demon he'd just sensed could easily rival Laxus, and maybe even Gildarts. Perhaps there was even more power than what had just been used behind it. If that were the case, did they just beat the small fries? How terrifying might the remaining demons of Tartaros be?

Scowling, Gray clenched his fists, fighting the fear from his mind. This was Fairy Tail. No matter what happened, he would press on toward the future with his friends by his side.


	6. Chapter 6

****DISCLAIMER** I don't own Fairy Tail, Mashima does. **DISCLAIMER****

Ok. With the disclaimer out of the way, on to a couple things in the reviews.

PersonaUserOrpheus3245: I've seen one episode of Naruto, so I know next to nothing about it, honestly. Except now I know it apparently has A class mages. On another note, this is my fanfiction so if I say there are A class mages there are A class mages. Then again, I've grown fairly certain you comment on stories only to feel like you're superior to the writers, so I'm sure you don't care.

For anyone who's interested in why I included classes other than 'S' class, well, it seems absurd to have only one power classification for a mage. We've already seen that there are requests on the non S-class board that could get you killed. For example, the job Macao took to eradicate Vulcans could've easily spelled death for any number of FT mages. I saw a couple Fanfictions with A and B class mages and decided to incorporate that ranking system into this since, as I said, it only makes sense to have more than 2 rankings.

Anyway, on to the story!

* * *

As Mard Geer completed the curse, the book sprung open. "Now that we have awakened your most powerful demon, even you cannot hope to stand against us, Lord Natsu."

He then frowned as the book, rather than taking the form of a demon, dissipated into black mist and rushed off into the hall. Mavis could see the disappointment on his face as he stared after it, apparently confused by this turn of events.

"That's the greatest demon?" He asked, turning back toward Natsu. "It doesn't even have a physical form.

"I told you that you might not want to open that," Natsu replied to the demon. "You know less than you believe, Mard Geer. My most powerful demon wasn't contained in that book. His power resided there and nothing else. Your ignorance will be the end of you."

The black-haired demon's smirk twitched. His eyes glinted with a hint of trepidation. "Even if your greatest demon wasn't in that book, he will still come here, now that his power is awakened."

"I have no doubt that he'll be here shortly," Natsu replied calmly. "What he does afterward, of course, is entirely his decision."

Mavis frowned. Hadn't Natsu given all the etherious an inherent desperation to find a way to kill him? Wasn't that their purpose? In the few conversations she had with him, that certainly seemed to be the case.

"Nonsense. He is a demon, like us. Of course he'll side with us." Despite the confidence of Mard Geer's words, the black-haired etherious seemed more hesitant than before.

"That's only half true," Natsu replied, glancing toward Mavis as he spoke. "The truth is that I used the power of that demon to revive someone, and then sealed away the power until he could grow strong enough to control it. I realized that if I revived him without allowing him the freedom to choose, it wouldn't be a true revival. I believe he's ready to receive the power now, of course. Otherwise I would've stopped you."

"I find it hard to believe that the black magician would've worked hard to revive anybody," Mard Geer responded, the confident smirk coming back to his lips. "But now I know you're bluffing. You couldn't have done anything to stop me in your current state."

Mavis felt her mouth fall open as the magic cancelling bands suddenly fell from Natsu, and he sat up on the device. His face was still expressionless as he reached out a hand toward Mard Geer.

"I was going to make you disappear," he said quietly, "but after all you've done I think that is far too lenient. Instead, I will strip you of your power." In a flash the demon transformed into a book with the words "Mard Geer" on the cover. Natsu's eyes seemed to turn almost golden as the book opened and the pages began flipping rapidly. Letters switched around inside the book as she watched, and she remembered that she knew very little of Natsu's magic. It would make sense that he would have mastered many forms, having many normal human lifespans to do so.

Then, a moment later, his eyes still glowing with that same golden light, he tossed the book into the center of the room. As the book transformed back into the familiar black-haired demon, every cell door in the room opened simultaneously as people started emerging.

Mard Geer reformed with his face still frozen in a sheer state of shock, but it reformed quickly to a sneer as he raised his hands. "Do you think any of these can do anything to me?" He scoffed. "I will simply kill them all and start over. Thorns!"

Mavis flinched, waiting for the thorns to spring up around the mob of people that were slowly emerging from their cells. Waiting for the screams that would erupt as flesh was torn and people began falling. Her eyes automatically closing so she wouldn't have to see the suffering.

But the screams never came. Her eyes popped open as she heard Mard Geer's voice instead, the confident smirk gone from his tones and near-panic setting in. "My thorns! My power! Why can't I access it?!"

"This is your punishment," Natsu said coldly. "When you had power over them, you did whatever you wanted to them. Now they will do whatever they want to you, and you will be powerless to resist them. And just so you know, I also made sure your sense of pain was double what it was before."

"No! I get it Lord Natsu! We made a mistake! Restore my power and I swear I'll never hurt another human again. Please!" Mard Geer's voice rose over the murmuring of the cloud, increasing in pitch to a near wail as they closed on him from all sides.

Shuddering slightly at the demon's pleas for mercy, Mavis returned her attention to Natsu. He had moved from his prior position and was coming to her. He came to a stop beside her as the demon's screams began to fill the air.

"N-Natsu?" She said tentatively as he unclasped her restraints. Her first instinct was to be overjoyed, but the expression on his face still hadn't changed. Did he hate her for tampering with his etherious? For changing them into the demons they'd become? Had she forever lost her chance at a relationship?

Natsu looked at her. "I understand you didn't mean for that to happen, Mavis, but I'm still disappointed. But then again, I can't fully blame you for what happened. The fault really lies with the etherious who chose to use their power in that way."

Mavis felt relief wash over her. Natsu wasn't mad at her after all, at least not too much. Still, it did little to allay the deep sorrow of knowing their relationship could never progress further without one of them dying.

Before she could ask anymore questions, he turned toward the door, his eyes alert as though he were expecting somebody. Mavis rose slowly from the device, looking in the same direction. Did he hear somebody approaching? Or…

Before the thought completed itself she felt it. The huge rush of magic power just beyond the entrance to the room. She looked to Natsu again, and noticed that he seemed a little tense. That was bad news. Anything that could make Natsu tense would be a real problem…

The doors burst open, and three people Mavis recognized from her time spying on the guild came rushing through. The first was Zeref Dragneel. Natsu's formerly deceased older brother. Just behind him were Mirajane and Lisanna Strauss. They all looked a little beat up, but the intense magic power she felt was definitely radiating off Zeref. The others were dwarfed by it.

She tensed up, instinctively clutching Natsu's arm as Zeref stopped across from them. The black-haired dragon slayer spared her only a brief glance before focusing his gaze on Natsu, his eyes cold and hard.

"Give me one good reason I shouldn't kill you right now," he growled, a black and demonic red fire circling his hands.

Natsu shrugged. "I can't really give you any reason not to do so. In fact, that was my deepest desire until around 100 years ago. But things have changed since then, and now I really hope you'll hear me out."

Zeref's eyes flickered to Mavis again, and she shrunk into Natsu. She was the one he should be angry at. If it weren't for her, the etherious would've never stepped out of line.

"Out of respect for the first master, I'll hear what you have to say," Zeref responded. Mavis sighed a little in relief.

Natsu nodded. "I'll be as brief as possible, then. Your memory should be returning now that the demonic power contained in your book has been released. I'm guessing it's still jumbled, though. Most of it can wait, but I'll fill you in on the important details now."

"First, you died over 400 years ago when a dragon attacked our village. You, mom, and dad… I was very young then, but somehow I survived the attack. But I was lonely. I wanted you at least to come back…"

"Because of that, I started learning magic even before I could read. And man, was it boring. I had to learn all that dumb stuff about how magic interacted. What kind of magics there were. Everything I really hated because at that time I would rather have been out punching things… But I stuck with it because I wanted a way to revive you."

"The professors at the magic school I ended up at saw through my experiments and advised me to stop before I incurred the wrath of Ankhseram. They even tore up my research papers that dealt with my ideas for reviving you. But that just drove me to continue in secret. Eventually I did indeed incur Ankhseram's wrath. On the day I turned 14, everyone in my school died… And not just the people. Everything that was alive. Even the plants and animals that were on the school grounds. Not one of them remained alive."

Mavis frowned as sadness washed over the pink-haired man's face. "From that day, the more I valued life, the more things around me would die. But I never did. I couldn't die. I even tried a few times, but it just didn't happen… So I continued my work in solitude, creating the etherious in the hopes that they would be powerful enough to kill me. It was through the experiments with the etherious that I discovered a way to resurrect you…"

Natsu took in a deep breath. "You were resurrected with the power of the greatest demon. One with such power I dared not even name it. At first, it was my intent to have the demon's power inside of you, so that you would think of nothing else but killing me. Then, when we finally met, you would fulfill my wish. But then I thought better of it. I realized that if I resurrected you as a demon, it wouldn't really be you. You would just be a likeness of the brother I once had recreated into a being born from my sadness and loneliness. So, rather than subject you to my will in that way, I sealed the demon's power in a book until you became strong enough to control it."

"It was initially my hope that when we met again, you would use that power to finally put an end to my miserable existence, but 100 years ago I met somebody rather special… Somebody that made me wish I could just live a normal life again after all those years in solitude. That was Mavis, and for a short time we were very happy."

"But in the last decades that my body has slept, my mind remained very much alive and active. Perhaps this is irreverent, but what kind of god would curse a kid barely in his teens with a curse that kills everything around him just because he was too stubborn to give up on reviving his brother? I began to think that maybe Ankhseram was just a little bit vindictive, and then I thought of something else. In order to revive you, I had to create a demon with more power than a god. But if that demon had enough power to break the god's hold over life and death, then the demonic power can also break the curse that binds me and Mavis."

Natsu glanced at Mavis, and she saw the trepidation in his onyx eyes before he turned back toward his brother, who now had access to the power of the strongest demon in the world. "So I guess what I'm asking is for you to break Ankhseram's curse on me… on us, so that we can just live a normal life."

Zeref frowned, his eyes never leaving Natsu's. "So you want me to kill Ankhseram?"

"Well, not exactly." Natsu replied. "It's true, that would be the easiest way to break the curse, but I couldn't ask you to do that regardless of how I feel. If Ankhseram dies, he'll leave a void in the balance of power that the gods maintain in the world. In order to prevent that, his power and status will instantly be transferred to the one who kills him…"

"You're saying there's another way to break the curse?" Mavis couldn't help speaking up, her excitement momentarily overcoming her reservations.

Natsu turned to her for a moment, his black eyes locking onto her. "Surely in all the reading you did, you learned of the ancient customs of single combat."

Mavis nodded. Of course she had. The ancient customs that were passed down from the gods in the beginnings of human civilization. Though the customs had fallen out of use in recent years, they allowed anybody to issue a challenge of single combat to another. The challenger would give his conditions for the fight, and if he won, his opponent would grant whatever conditions he set.

Of course, the challenged person would then issue the counter-scenario. What would happen if the challenger lost. The challenger would then have an opportunity to withdraw his he did not withdraw, the battle would take place immediately. Once the winner was determined, the conditions of the winner would be carried out immediately.

"You should understand that the gods themselves honor these traditions, then." Of course, it only made sense. They were handed down after all. But wait, did that mean Natsu intended to have Zeref challenge Ankhseram to single combat?

"This is why I say that it's harder," Natsu said. "You can challenge Ankhseram to a battle with the conditions that he will lift the curse on both of us if you win. Obviously the danger is that he will then set his own terms as to what will happen if you lose. That's why this is dangerous. While I have no doubt of your ability to kill Ankhseram, defeating him without killing is another matter entirely. There's no doubt that your strength is enough, but he has the endurance of a god, and the experience of thousands of years of life. I'll understand if you do not want to do this, especially for someone who has caused your guild nothing but grief."

 **~~~~~~Zeref~~~~~~**

It was a lot for him to take in. He'd been mentally prepared for the revelation that Natsu was his brother. After all, he'd overheard the guild master talking about that on Tenroujima. He couldn't trust his memories right now either. Since that strange power rushed in, it was like all these weird images jumbled with his memories of Igneel in the past. He saw other dragon slayers. Even a mother and father. He was having a lot of difficulty telling truth from reality.

Still, his instincts told him Natsu wasn't lying. Since joining Fairy Tail, he'd learned that he should trust his instincts, even when his brain told him he should be more careful.

But then, logically, Fairy Tail's first master was there, right? That meant Natsu couldn't be all bad. And if he was honest, other than his eyes, which looked like those of an old man, Natsu did have the overall look of someone who was still in their early teens.

Still, the prospect of fighting a god terrified him. He felt the new levels his magic power rose to after the demon powers were restored, and it _felt_ like he could beat a god. Yet feeling it and actually thinking about doing it were entirely different things. Gods were the most powerful beings in the universe, after all. Other than the pretentious 'god' Serena, so named because he was the most powerful mage in Ishgar.

"Hey wait a minute!" Zeref looked to the side to see Mirajane, her fists clenched and her aura spilling out. "Why should Zeref do something like that for you? You're asking him to risk his life to free your sorry ass from a curse?!"

"I realize I have no right to ask anything of him," Natsu replied, his onyx eyes fixing on Mirajane. "However, this is something that he must decide. Also, I would advise you not to do that."

"Not to do what?" Mirajane sneered. Despite her attitude, her eyes were visibly shaken. Zeref could only surmise that she'd been planning an attack on the pink-haired man in front of them.

Natsu ignored her, focusing his onyx orbs on Zeref again. "So what will it be, Zeref?"

Zeref frowned. What should he do? If what his brother said was true, then he wouldn't even be here if it weren't for him. On that level, didn't he at least owe him something for his current life? But still, this was Natsu, the most powerful and most mysterious mage in the history of earthland. Dubbed evil by some, whether he deserved the title or not. Besides, it wasn't like he _asked_ to be resurrected. Maybe he would've been happier if he just stayed dead in the first place.

No, that was a lie. He couldn't look back at his years with Igneel, and then at Fairy Tail, and say that he would've been happier if he just stayed dead. He wouldn't trade his current life for the world. So in that way, he certainly did owe his brother.

"It's also true that Fairy Tail wouldn't exist if not for Natsu," Mavis' voice broke into his contemplation. "He taught all of us our magic, after all. If not for that we never would've formed the guild."

"You taught the first master magic?!" Mirajane sounded shocked. Well, Zeref couldn't blame her. It would've been a shock for him if he hadn't suspected they had some kind of relationship from their encounter at the island.

"It's a story I'll tell you in full later," Mavis said with a smile. "If we can break this curse… Otherwise, I won't trust myself to be near any of you for an extended period…"

Zeref sighed. In his mind it was still a gamble, but if there was a chance to give his brother and the first master a second chance at a normal human life, he wasn't going to pass it up.

"Very well, I'll do it." He hoped the tone was as calm as he intended it to be as he tried to force his heart to still within him. The uncertainty of the battle sent his adrenaline pumping in a way he'd never experienced before. The words coming out of his mouth surprised him, but with those simple words it was decided. Zeref Dragneel would fight a god.

* * *

There it is. Sorry for the short chapter, but I wanted to cut it off before the Zeref/Ankhseram fight. Which will be coming up next... Will Zeref be able to overcome Ankhseram? What will the price be if he fails? Find out in the next chapter...

BTW, you may have to wait a few weeks 'cause I feel an update or two for 'Salamander of Alvarez' coming on :D


End file.
